Sutherland's - Unbelievable Lack of Customer Service

LUBBOCK, TEXAS -- I was at Sutherland's at 7:30 a.m. today to take advantage of their regular 20 percent holiday discount. Got my cat food, and asked at front if they could recommend something to repair the threshold on my inside back door. It has come apart and I think the screws are stripped, so I was thinking I might glue it - could they recommend a glue. The guy - middle age - not some kid - and it was first thing in the morning so no one should be hot and tired - just said go to aisle 13. OK - I'm an older woman and I don't know hardware stuff. Any decent customer service would have resulted in me purchasing the product but I'm not going to aisle 13 and wander around trying to find what I don't even know what I'm looking for. Any decent customer service would have gone with me to find the product and resulted in a sale.

I guess this is typical these days but it doesn't make sense to me so I can't see how it can make sense to management. Do they want sales, or not???

I am pretty handy with repairing and building things, and based on your description I am guessing the man couldn't think of something they have that will fix the problem. Gluing a threshold is a dicey propostion - unless it is a marble one like used at a bathroom. If screws are "stripped" the correct solution is to redo or repair the substrate underneath, and use screws like you currently have.

This doesn't mean the man should not of at least tried to help you.

Posted by FoDaddy19 on 2013-09-02:

The guy might've not have known what product you needed, so helped you to the best of his ability and told you were the items where what kind of task would likely be located. And since presumably nobody in the store knows what kind of floors or threshold your house has, it could've been assumed that you would be the person who would mostly likely know what kind of product would a be appropriate for your needs.

Posted by Sharsmit on 2013-09-02:

Thanks. Guess I'll abandon the gluing idea. Thankfully I do have a good handyman - just thought I'd make my own effort first. (He is used to fixing my efforts!) The person at the store did offer a silicone type of glue but my complaint is that he just waved me off in the direction of it. If he had taken me to it and showed me, I would have purchased it. It just gets me how these stores spend tons of money on advertising but when the customer is in the store, they can't be bothered to help them.